


Gift for the Solitary Flower

by Darkbeetlebot



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Heartbreaking, Heartwarming, Minor Original Character(s), Mystery, Parent-Child Relationship, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 16:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12112350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkbeetlebot/pseuds/Darkbeetlebot
Summary: A strange youkai finds itself in the hands of none other than Kazami Yuuka, who is having a hard time with people disliking her. There are plenty of people who want to oppose her, too; and they don't exactly help the reputation. Will she be able to overcome the social hurdle, or be doomed to a life of solitude?





	1. Intro

Gensokyo is such a peaceful place in a world that is most chaotic, yet it still has its own kind of the latter. One incident after another, it's a repetitive loop that seems to have no exceptions. Through the eyes of the seemingly ageless, the loop is torturous and, ironically, those ageless seem to be common in this fantastical world. Though it repeats, each experience is new and unique. It grants a release from the boredom of existing without a clear end in sight; most simply give up the thought of continuing their lives in exchange for interest and new memories. In that way, the Youkai of this land still have humanity, and vice-versa.

So why is it that they hate each other? To share a common existence, but to deny tranquility and coexistence even through clearly dual strife seems illogical. Still, of these resentful emotions can raise friendship. Few are willing to forget prejudice to achieve such a state and would rather stay as their kin have been.

And then there are the…different…ones, those who are already dead but still live as a mere husk of their previous nature. These are the beings called either "great" or "petty," such a similarity between extremes being of negligible importance. It is still the same, and always will be until changed by an outside influence.

In this fantastical world of Gensokyo is a flower that resides in a field of its own creation, its own beauty, and its own sorrow; its own hatred and denial. The past has left it alone and sour. And so do the passersby ask, "Why do they droop, but never truly die?" and "How are they all one?" The only one there to answer their questions stands in an illusory path. The only sound they give is a sigh, standing in silence and lost in their own tranquility of solitude.

It is a lie. None come this way any longer, and the questions this being wishes to hear and answer are imagination, just as the land is and just as their happiness. Content is no longer a factor, it is a goal; an impossible goal.

Yuuka Kazami, a name that is feared no matter who utters it. What, really, is the weight of the fear? Is its origin only in the past or is it of reasons untold from the perspective of the opposition? "Flower Master of the Four Seasons," is it not a threatening yet prestigious title? There are so many questions and none of them are answered so far. It's just a never-ending game of standing idly to ponder.

_"Memories of those who lived in the past,_

_Recollections for the dead and gone,_

_Portrayals for the existences of the present,_

_And hopes and expectances for the future life,_

_This world around us grows life that blossoms in the sun and dies in the darkness,_

_Like the flowers in this phantasmal garden, they grow_

_If they are the flowers that cover this land, it might as well be barren,_

_Except that either way, it is,_

_Whether they live or die, all that is left is a wistful nothing,_

_I'd like to see the world covered in sunflowers,_

_A field of happy souls devoid of spider lilies,_

_And I will make it so, for a beautiful fragrance, and for a gorgeous appearance_

_Not even will the darkness stop it,_

_The light of the moon still shines upon these numerous petals,_

_Not even will raging fire destroy it,_

_The rain and clouds will send torrents to cleanse it,_

_The worldly garden will still spread so,_

_Its glory witnessed in full_

_Even so, even if the world is filled with the mark of the dead,_

_Emptiness is still persistent,_

_For even in this Gensokyo,_

_The Gensokyo where fantasy may become reality and the latter has no meaning,_

_There is still loneliness_

_This flower stands solitarily,_

_For the others fear its greatness,_

_Company has never been so exclusive,_

_Where it never dies, but never takes,_

_Truly longing and truly depressing is the flower standing alone,_

_In the center of an illusionary crowd"_

**-Yuuka Kazami,**

**The Everlasting Sunflower is finally dead,**

**And it has gone unnoticed**


	2. Chapter 1

"These flowers smell different today…could it be that little thing running around here?" Yuuka asks herself, bending over to sniff one of the numerous sunflowers that fill the field. "What does she want?" She asks herself. At that moment, she glances back less than a second after noticing a slight rustling. Yuuka frowns frustratedly and proceeds towards the noise with intimidating poise and apparent stature. " **Come out**." She demands of the intruder.

She waits a moment and eventually, a small figure peeks out from in front of Yuuka. This small figure is simply a young girl, not even half of Yuuka's size, with two tiny stubs for horns sticking out of her blonde-haired head. She is wearing next to nothing besides a worn out cloth tunic. The little girl surprisingly doesn't look to be afraid, which somewhat confuses Yuuka. She looks down at the girl and asks her in a now calm voice, "Why do you disturb me?"

"I just wanted to…" The girl starts out, hesitating. She completely pauses seconds later and looks away, about to try and run.

Yuuka points her parasol at the girl, "Don't run; what is your name?"

"Ta-Takara…" she answers.

"Surname?" Yuuka asks.

"Wakahisa." The girl finishes.

"Ta-karawa-kahi-sa?" Yuuka says in one long string, grinning and chuckling unexpectedly playfully. Takara also smiles, not sure what to think. Yuuka lowers her umbrella. " **You should go**." She suddenly suggests, losing her grin. Again, Takara hesitates. She backs away a few steps, but doesn't seem to know where to go. Yuuka sighs and offers, "Should I lead you out?" The girl slowly nods and comes closer. Yuuka raises her eyebrow a bit to the strangely brave or oblivious girl's actions. If that is not odd enough, Takara then attempts to hold Yuuka's hand. She backs up and pulls her hand away, staring oddly at the girl.

"What's wrong?" The little youkai asks.

Yuuka shakes her head and regains composure, "Nothing. Nothing at all;" she then asks "come, where do you live?" Takara does not answer; she just hesitates while pointing in several directions. "You don't know?" Yuuka wonders.

"N-No…" Takara admits.

"What, even, are you? Are you an oni?" Yuuka asks her while beginning to circle around while twirling her pale pink parasol.

"I don't know…" Takara also admits.

Yuuka frowns, dissatisfied and turns away from the girl to continue walking through the field. She beckons Takara to follow her with one hand. The girl does so.

They walk for a while, seemingly with no aim before Yuuka spies an object in the distance. "Stop." She tells the little girl. Yuuka closes her parasol and points it at the object that is beginning to rapidly grow in size, a strange ball of light forms at the end of the parasol.

They hear a feminine voice screaming loudly and aggressively, "YOUKAI SCUUUU-!" just as the figure in the distance comes dangerously close but too fast to be recognizable.

Yuuka interrupts the screaming with a rather soft yet solid whisper, " **Grand Spark.** "

The light ball at the end of her parasol instantly fires off a giant beam of bright, multi-colored, slowly changing light that looks more like a huge circular wall from behind. The beam cuts strait through the incoming figure and the far out landscape, disintegrating the background in front of Yuuka. Just a few meters away lies the charred figure that had charged at them, an odd looking shrine maiden holding a stick with a piece of paper on top.

Yuuka decides to talk down to the thing, "You probably noticed that my spark stung quite a bit more than the witch's puny thing. You should know better than to pick fights with people stronger than you, shrine maiden. Maybe take a tip from red-and-white. After all, green and red do complement each other quite well. I would know, you know?" She ends with a grin. However, it's not over yet, Yuuka walk over the maiden's body and stomps on her chest with an immense strength.

The charred girl coughs when stepped on and manages to groan, "So you're just as terrifying as they said you were…"

This strikes a nerve, as Yuuka instantly loose her smile and instead gains a surprised expression with a slightly open mouth that, over a few seconds, turns to a grit of teeth. She raises an eyebrow and increases the pressure on the charred girl's chest before using that same strength to let go and punt her into the field's frenzy of sunflowers.

Yuuka calms down after a moment and turns back to Takara, who is sitting behind where Yuuka was standing a minute ago, and appears to be _trembling in terror._ Yuuka re-opens her parasol and proceeds towards the girl, outstretching her hand. No use, she just crawls backwards.

"W-Why did you do that?" Takara asks in her firghtened voice.

"That was an enemy. Take my hand, now." Yuuka explains rather calmly. Takara slowly stands back up on her own and comes closer to Yuuka. "That's better..." She cheerily says.

The two proceed to walk away from the scene for another few minutes before Yuuka decides to start talking, "Do you know what this place is?"

"No." Takara answers, visibly curious.

"This is the garden of the sun, my home." Yuuka explains. "It is a favorite place for the many youkai of this land..."

"Where did they go?" Takara asks with uptalk.

Yuuka stops in place for a second, then answers, "Stronger people came and scared them off. It has become rather quiet..." She continues walking seconds later.

"Stronger people?" Takara continues to question.

"Yes," Yuuka confirms "like shrine maidens."

"Was that girl from earlier one?" Takara asks.

Yuuka sighs, "Yes, she was. One that is quite a nuisance, in fact."

Takara stays silent for a moment, then latches on to Yuuka's dress, "So...she'll...hurt me?"

Yuuka stops and looks down at her with a slight blush and smile, then turns away and grins widely before pulling it back, "Yes." she bluntly answers.

Takara cluches on tighter and asks, "You won't let her, right?"

"Maybe I will...or will I not?" Yuuka vaguely answers. Takara doesn't appreciate the vague teasing and wines mildly.

They keep on for even longer before Takara finally asks, "Where are we going?"

Yuuka points out into the distance at a silhouette of what appears to be a rather large house. "There. We're not far."

"Is that your...?" Takara starts to ask.

"Yes. You're not the first to see it." Yuuka smiles and comments. "Let's go."

As the two get closer, the mansion appears to be made more and more of foliage and vines and other plants. The entire building itself appears to be made of trees. There also happens to be a giant sunflower sprouting through the middle of it. Aside from the plants, the architecture of the house looks rather Ottonian, but with a bit of Romanesque style to it. The outside is mostly red and white, much like Yuuka's dress.

"This is it." She announces after reaching the entrance to the odd mansion; a rather large double door with large circular holes instead of windows. Most of the house's windows happen to be holes instead of glass. Yuuka happens to be standing atop an elevated porch and looking down towards Takara. "Come up and in, look around." Yuuka offers.

"Y-Yes…" Takara says hesitantly; she's still a bit shaken by the threatening feeling that Yuuka gives off. She steps up and follows Yuuka into the home, then is greeted nicely by a rather large bright blue butterfly floating past her rather closely. She jumps a bit at the sudden appearance.

Yuuka chuckles at the reaction, "They have a tendency to do that." She claims. "Go, explore a bit. Just don't destroy anything."

Takara nods her head and wanders off rather hastily, leaving Yuuka to herself. She walks right back out the front door and sits down in a chair on the front porch.

She sits back and watches the scenery of the giant flower garden for the next couple hours. Eventually, something catches her attention: the faint sound of a violin playing. She smiles and enjoys the sound, not caring from where or who it is coming from. It plays on for a while before stopping suddenly and without much of an outro. Yuuka stands up and scans the area for something out of the ordinary that might have caused the stop. Listening, still listening, she hears the faint clammer of humans in the distance. She scowls and sits back down with a sigh, awaiting their arrival. Sure enough, no longer than ten minutes later, a small party of armed humans come marching up to Yuuka's front door; they look angry.

"Youkai!" One male calls out to her. Yuuka simply approaches the steps and looks down on them with her previous scowl. "You have something that we want!" he states.

"I may. Regardless of what it is, I won't let you have it, however." Yuuka informs them. She holds out her parasol, pointing strait at them.

They all stand staring at her for another minute, and then Takara comes running out of the mansion yelling, "Hey, hey! What's-" but she interrupts herself by looking at the villagers.

"THERE IT IS! FIRE!" One person screams out upon sighting the girl. Two men then pull out longbows and arm them, aiming strait at the poor little girl. In immediate response, Yuuka fires another giant beam at the men who are all caught in it directly. They lie on the ground, charred like the girl earlier was, but they don't seem to be completely unharmed. Yuuka jumps down after that and walks over to them slowly but surely. Most of the people attempt to back away as they hear the heavy steps of an angry Yuuka that rock even their minds. One, however, actually gets up and tries to draw his bow again, but Yuuka simply dashes towards him without word and grabs him by the throat, snapping the bow in half while doing so. She lifts him up above herself and stares at him with both disgust and pity.

"You picked the wrong day to arrive here, scum." She calmly but angrily says. She drops him and lets him hit the ground, then steps on him and starts to grind her boot into his chest. " **Beings like you don't deserve to live**." She then presses incredibly hard on him, then hears a loud **SNAP**. The man suddenly cries out and stops moving after another, almost silent pop, then a squish. Yuuka attempts to calm down and steps off of the completely still thing, then punts him as well, far off into the distance. The other humans back away slowly but eventually get up and begin to run in fear of her. Yuuka stares at the fleeing things and only turns around to face Takara, recomposing herself with visible effort.

As Yuuka approaches, Takara stares at her with a worried expression and asks, "Did you…kill him?"

Yuuka chuckles and answers, "I think so. The others will definitely be mad, but I'll see them fail."

"Others?" Takara says with her head tilted.

Yuuka answers her with a small sigh, "You may see them eventually. What was it you wanted, now?"

"Oh, I saw a thing fly through the window." Takara informs her.

"…Was it a large thing?" Yuuka asks, again not happy.

"A little bigger than me." Takara answers.

"Did it have antennae?" Yuuka continues to question her.

"Yeah!" Takara yells.

Without hesitation, Yuuka frustratedly marches into her house and screams, "NIGHTBUG!" As soon as she does so, a loud clamoring is heard up and to the left. Yuuka instinctively and quickly runs up a flight of stairs towards the sound. She follows the frantic crashing of someone trying to escape for a short time when a green-haired and incredibly ambiguous looking kid comes crashing through the wall. Yuuka instantly grabs the thing by its neck and slams it into the ground, making it skid across the plaid carpets for a few meters.

"That was really rough!" The ambiguous kid yells in a not-so-ambiguous but obviously feminine voice.

Yuuka ignores this and asks the thing with a stern tone, "How many times have I told you not to break into my house, **you damn pest**?"

The kid gulps and hesitates to speak, but it doesn't matter for Yuuka takes no stride in picking it up and throwing it at full force through the wall that it crashed through and out of the house altogether. She recomposes herself again and walks back to Takara, taking her sweet time with the distance.

When she finally arrives, she states matter-of-factly, "It's just a regular day!" with just the slightest hint of aggravation.

"Hey, what else is there to do?" Takara suddenly asks.

Yuuka, still smiling, just freezes in place with no direct answer. She suddenly realizes, " _I have absolutely no idea what children like to do._ " So she just settles with answering, "Perhaps we should work on getting you home." Takara just smiles and nods, then grabs onto Yuuka. The two go a bit further into the mansion, finally arriving in a giant circular room that looks like the inside of a tree. In the center is a giant, also circular bed with pale pink covers. The surrounding dome-like walls are plastered with various vines among other things. Books can also be seen around the bed and piled around a desk at the end of the room opposite of the door. Above the bed and about the same diameter is a cylindrical glass skylight. The skylight brightens up the room quite a bit, and the parts that aren't are ominously and faintly lit by lanterns holding fireflies in them.

Yuuka turns to the little girl and asks, "You like it? Come, I have something that can help us." Takara follows slowly while staring at the odd scenery. Yuuka starts to look through the piles of books and around her desk and in it, itself. Takara sits on her bed and picks up a nearby notebook that appears to be lying on it. She opens it up and begins to skim through; it's full of handwriting that looks like it was scrawled on in a hurry. Though she can't actually read, she stares at the side drawings of various plants and flowers.

"Takara, come here." Yuuka calls to her. She jumps up and stumbles over to Yuuka who is sitting at her desk. Takara looks over her shoulder at one book with a title accompanied by a sketch of some sort that looks like an arch found at shrines. "I'll flip through the pages; you tell me when you see something that looks like where you live, OK?" Yuuka asks of her, shortly after starting to flip a bit slowly through the book. Apart from the old, parched pages, there are fairly vivid illustrations of different landscapes. One is an image of a dark forest place with a dirt path struck through and into it. Along the path and around the countless trees are what appear to be mushrooms. That, however, is all she can see before the page is flipped. Another is of a giant lake with an oversized mansion on its edge and in the distance, a giant mountain covered in fog. Another is on the border of a wide, seemingly endless forest of bamboo shoots that reach far into the sky. A few pages later, Yuuka suddenly skips one illustration that is flushed with yellow and green and continues forth.

"Hey, you missed one, go back!" Takara yells at her.

"I didn't, that was just a stain." Yuuka tells her, very obviously lying.

"No, go back!" Takara demands.

Yuuka sighs and turns back to the skipped page, it's an overhead shot of a giant field of yellow flowers with some big object in the middle.

"Is this where we are?" Takara asks. Yuuka nods and keeps flipping through to no avail; the girl just doesn't seem to know where she lived.

Yuuka grows tired of keeping this up and asks, "Do you even remember where you came from?" Takara says nothing and backs away. "Don't you?" She asks again. No answer again, so Yuuka sighs and closes the book proclaiming, "You're hopeless…"

After a minute of sitting/standing quietly, Yuuka stands up and says, "There's someone else coming. Stay here." She marches out of the room and through the various halls with her parasol in hand and a bit of an unhappy look.

Reaching the front door finally, she finds another group of humans standing at her doorstep, but this time with no weapons and a surprising character: Reimu Hakurei, the "friendly" next door shrine maiden in red and white.

Yuuka bursts through the front door, groaning tiredly, " _What is it now!?_ " she yells.

Reimu steps forward and yells back at her with her miko stick pointed at her, "We're here to stop your nefarious plans, evil green-haired woman! Unhand the girl in your possession and you shall not suffer our wrath!"

Yuuka smirks and just about blows a vein, "So where did you get that annoying speech? I think you're watching too much TV."

"…The hell's 'TV'?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Never mind, what exactly are you things here for?" Yuuka dismisses the comment and asks.

One villager steps forward, "A child ran into this field, she belongs to us! Are you saying you haven't seen her?"

Yuuka sighs yet again, then says, "One moment." and goes back into her mansion. After a few minutes, Yuuka comes back out with Takara at her side, clutching her dress. "Is this what you want?" Yuuka asks the people.

"Yes, that's her!" One villager yells out, among the others who look relieved. They all attempt to gather around Takara and Yuuka, but the latter staves them off with her parasol.

"Girl," Yuuka looks down at her with one eye closed and begins to ask "do you know these people?"

Takara nods at her, then lets go of her dress, and Yuuka steps back a few. The humans cheerily gather around her and everyone looks rather happy. That is, until a scream is heard nearby. Everyone looks off in the direction opposite of the mansion to see a human woman running towards them.

Reimu stops the woman and shakes her a bit while yelling, "What is your problem!?"

"A body! I saw a corpse!" The woman immediately answers.

Reimu suddenly looks shocked at Yuuka, who stares back and smiles with some sort of sick happiness. "You…" Reimu starts "did you…?"

Yuuka just gives a tilt of her head and admits, "I knew I'd get in trouble for this, but I'll just beat you down if need be." She then threatens with a slight frown and half-closed eyes "Are we going to have to do that?"

Reimu is stuck in place, thinking the situation through, " _I don't know how, but she seems stronger than usual…I don't like this atmosphere._ "

Finally, she just backs off and calls out to the others, "You guys got what you came for; let's just get out of here." With that, they leave peacefully.

Yuuka is left alone on the porch, and eventually says to herself, "There goes another…" before heading back inside.


	3. Chapter 2

An Hour or so after leaving the Garden of the Sun, the villagers, Reimu and Takara all return to the village without much interruption, and are greeted by sour faces at the sight of the little girl.

"I thought she was dead…" one person mutters to another rather loudly.

"What are they thinking!?" another asks rhetorically.

They all stare as the apparently unaccepted oni wanders through the roads and walkways with the group leading. Eventually, through all the ridicule, they reach a rather quaint wood and stone house of minuscule stature compared to the others around it.

"Go on in." one of the women says softly. Takara, who is now rather sullen-looking, walks carefully into the house through a hanging cloth door-like entrance. Everything around seems to be either brown or green.

"Alright, she's here, my work is done."Reimu blurts out after stretching and yawning. She walks away and off into nowhere in particular, with a rather lazy slouch as well.

As soon as she leaves, the innocent and friendly disposition of the group and atmosphere completely changes. They all flood into the house and one man lights a candle, which reveals the dank house to be empty, but with a peculiar hatch to the far top-right. He opens up the hatch which leads to a small set of stairs, the others slowly march down.

The woman who led Takara into the house looks down at her and pats her head from the side, "Come down…we'll take good care of you." She assures in her soft voice, but also with a deathly stare that says otherwise.

Takara gulps and follows the others down into the basement. Down there, it takes just a few minutes for the group to light the numerous candles and lanterns that cover the walls and furniture. At the end of the basement on the opposite end of the stairs is an illuminated throne-like chair made of wood and what appear to be bones. They grab Takara by the arms and hastily lead her over to the chair and sit her in it.

"Is it enough for you?" One woman – a different one from before with a raspy voice – asks. Takara nods nervously. Another brings her a clay cup filled with some sort of dark drink.

"Please, drink." The one who handed her the cup begs; their voice is obviously male, but also somewhat feminine. Before long, the group of at least ten people is swarmed around her, almost grooming the oni.

Above ground, back at Yuuka's home, she sits on her bed staring at the walls of twinkling bugs, in what looks like deep thought. "I wonder who those people were…they seemed nice enough." She says to herself. "But what would those humans want with an oni? Perhaps some sort of cult…it's usually like that."

Another silent minute befalls her as she keeps on staring, but slowly lies backwards to stare up through the skylight. "Wait a minute," she suddenly realizes "didn't Rinnosuke have a recent helper? I think…that was her, wasn't it!?" She jumps up and stomps angrily out of the room, down the numerous flights of stairs to the entrance while mumbling and cursing herself for being so stupid. "Why didn't I notice, and why didn't she mention him!?" Upon reaching the door, she kicks it in for almost no reason besides pure enragement. "DAMMIT!" she screams out at once before dashing down the steps and then sprouting huge, plant-like wings and taking off through the field, grazing the tops of the flowers.

It takes only a few more minutes for her to reach the Kourindou, the antique shop which Rinnosuke runs in the Forest of Magic, a dark forest practically teaming with mythical life. Yuuka happens to make quite an entrance by smashing strait into the ground just a dozen meters in front of the building, causing a sort of miniature earthquake that catches the storekeeper's attention.

Rinnosuke – a man with a pale complexion, a pair of glasses, bright white hair, and a very aristocratic-yet-lazy looking half blue and half black robe – comes running out of the shop hastily to see a very frustrated Yuuka standing with her wings threateningly spread out for all to see and her parasol stabbed into the ground, aligned at her center. "M-Miss Yuuka! What seems to be the problem?" Rinnosuke hesitantly asks her with a polite greeting.

"Rinnosuke," Yuuka growls at him "what was the name of the helper you had in your midst not long ago?" she continues in a less frightening tone.

"I don't believe you met her…but I did have-" he begins to answer, but is interrupted by Yuuka.

"Name. Now." She demands with a raised voice.

"I think it was Takara." He answers immediately, not wishing to be torn to shreds today.

"Just as expected." Yuuka mutters as she turns away. She turns back, however, and asks him, "What is the relationship between her and the nearby village?"

"I'm…not really sure;" Rinnosuke admits "there was a group of people who came by about a week ago and asked to see her, they seemed pretty nice, but there was also something off about them so I refused. She left all of the sudden just two days ago before the group came back and asked to see her." Yuuka doesn't look quite pleased with that, and Rinnosuke notices, "That's all I know, I swear!" he pleads.

"I think I met those same people not too long ago." Yuuka thinks aloud.

"Wait, you met them?" Rinnosuke asks her.

"Yes. I also met your assistant today. She left with them maybe 10 or 20 minutes ago." Yuuka tells him with a somewhat calm but agitated voice.

They stay silent, staring at each other for a moment, but Yuuka turns to leave not long after. "Wait!" Rinnosuke yells at her. Yuuka looks back at him without a word. "Could you please bring her back here?" He asks of her.

"What, are you afraid to go with me?" Yuuka teases him with a smirk.

"I-If you'll take me, I'll help." Rinnosuke refutes her with a bit of a stutter.

Yuuka waves her hand once, "On second thought, I'd rather go alone." With that, she bursts forward into the air and flies away and out of view.

Back at the human village, the people are continuing on with their usual day, looking rather lively as a group. Particularly, there is quite a lot of noise coming from the tavern. Inside, the noise is shown to be coming from none other than Reimu attempting to have a drinking contest with a group of people. Mostly males, all while a band plays wildly and to their hearts' content to liven the publicly watched competition. One by one, the group begins to drop like flies from the intense intoxication. Understandably, though, since they had drunken dozens of cups worth of Sake. Just about to win, Reimu faces off against one other faceless human when something catches her senses: a small cluster of multi-colored flowers sprouting from the floor.

She jumps up and yells, "Stop!" before falling right on her ass. She begins to scoot backwards and stand, regaining balance. The crowd begins to murmur and the band stops confusedly. Reimu hurriedly stumbles out of the tavern to see the roads of the village sprouting flowers and other plants slowly but surely. She looks down both ends of the road for something, but doesn't see it, so she yells out at all who will listen, "EVERYBODY GET INSIDE NOW!" Everyone looks at her for a moment, start murmuring to each other, and then scatter to go back indoors for fear of what may come. Reimu starts to run around the village, frantically looking for something. As she runs, plants start to sprout slowly from the ground everywhere. A minute or two later, she stops and looks around at the vines and flowers and grass overtaking the ground around her and feels a sudden pressure on the back of her head.

"Shrine maiden…" a soft voice says from behind.

"You…" Reimu scowls quietly, then swipes behind her and jumps back only to be tripped by a vine. She looks up and sees Yuuka looming over her with wings spread out and casting a dank shadow. The sun just barely rises over her head to give a threatening and literally blinding appearance from below. "What are you doing here, salad wings?" Reimu asks in an insulting manner before standing back up.

"I've been informed that an injustice was performed…I'm here to correct it." She answers calmly, but also with a hint of irritation. "Move, you drunk; you're in my way again." She demands and points her parasol strait at Reimu.

Reimu hiccups a moment later and stands somewhat firmly despite her intoxication. "As you are, you stand no threat to me. Don't kid yourself." Yuuka tells her, trying to persuade the fight out of her. It doesn't work, Reimu still stands there defiantly. "I don't want to destroy anything, you know." Yuuka tells her. Again, nothing happens. She grows impatient and tries simply ensnaring Reimu's legs with plant matter. Reimu doesn't notice until Yuuka walks right past her and she tries to stop her.

"W-What the…?" Reimu stammers confusedly, trying to tug her legs out of the trap. "Hey, this isn't fair at all!" She claims. Yuuka takes no head in her immobility and moves along the roads.

She actually stops for a moment and yells back, "You should have seen that coming. Drunk, you're nothing but a fool, I see."

Yuuka heads deeper into the village where villagers are still walking around, and few notice her when she puts her wings down. That is, until she approaches one and begins to inquire, "Excuse me…"

She can barely get those words out before the man she approaches freaks out and screams, "Y-YUUUUKAAAAA!"

She grabs the man by his head while he draws the attention of the soon-frightened others around them, and she asks, "Listen, have you seen a little pale girl with horns around here?"

The man is still freaking out and trying to pry Yuuka's hand off of him to no avail. "HELP MEEEEE!" He keeps screaming. The people around just stare in shock and worry, not being of any help whatsoever.

"Are you listening to me?" Yuuka asks him, now becoming increasingly frustrated. The man stops struggling for a few moments to hear her. "Have you seen a little pale girl with horns around here?" she asks again. The man attempts to shake his head "no". Yuuka drops him on the ground and walks away, unsatisfied.

On her way out of the crowd, one person grabs her shoulder and whispers, "I think I saw the girl you're looking for. Some people came into the village with her and went into that old shack at the end of the road." They point out at the shack that they mentioned, and then turn back around to do what they were doing. Yuuka suddenly looks calmer and proceeds towards the building.

It only takes a half minute to walk up to the door and attempt to open it, only to realize that it is barred shut. This shoots Yuuka into another rage which causes her to raise one leg up and press it gently against the door, then fold her parasol up and press it against the door just above her foot. On the other side, one man is standing guard just behind the door wielding a mace or club of sorts. He's immediately frightened by the door spontaneously snapping down the middle and the two halves flying to the left and right respectively. He steps back, but then gets brave and tries to charge forward while screaming, "INTRUDER!" His battle cry lasts only for a second before he's literally impaled by Yuuka's parasol which is stationed at just the right height to go through his eye.

"Stupid peasant, you could have avoided that." She scolds his corpse while it slowly limps down and off of her parasol. After it completely slides off, she slowly marches around the room looking for the little oni girl. She finds nothing and is slightly put off and frustrated. That is, until she spies a closed hatch in the pitch blackness. With pure, brute strength, she just stomps the hatch open instead of opening it like a rational being. She steps down onto the ladder revealed below and walks into the basement.

Inside, she sees a group of people surrounding a table of some sort with the entire dirty basement covered in lit candles and occult paraphernalia. The group turns around to see her standing there with a severely pissed off scowl directed right at them. Yuuka yells at them in an authoritative tone, "Where is the girl!?"

The group of apparent cultists draw daggers and clubs in preparation for the inevitable. Yuuka simply leans to the right and stares at the table for a brief moment, spying a pale body lying on it bound in either leather or chains, possibly both. Yuuka carefully places her parasol against the steps and slams one closed fist into her palm; it makes a loud cracking sound. She does the same with the other hand and asks rhetorically, "We're going to have to do this the hard way, aren't we?" then switches to another thought after a chuckle "I should have known…"

One cultist leads a charge with his weapon only slightly raised up, the other come shortly after. However, Yuuka doesn't even have to move to take them out. She simply causes giant, thorned plants to erupt from the ground and strike and slice them all to an utter hellscape of pain and prickly misery. The cultists all stop dead in their tracks and are stabbed repeatedly by the thorny wall to the point of screaming, "NOT THE THORNS! ANYTHING BUT THE THORNS!" Soon enough, the wall becomes a dome of thorny plants that entrap the humans and leaves them yelling in pain from being constantly pricked in every direction.

Ignoring the screams, Yuuka picks her parasol back up and walks around the dome, towards the table to find Takara lying asleep on it. Yuuka sighs and picks her up from the table with a single arm, then slings her around the corresponding shoulder. She simply walks up and out of the shack with little more than a smile. The dome of thorns is also not lifted.

Just as Yuuka is walking out, she is confronted by Reimu yet again, but a little more sober. She stops Yuuka and yells at her, "I'M GONNA BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!"

Yuuka immediately responds, "Nope." and then dashes forward and punches Reimu in the face.

Reimu pulls backwards and covers her face while yelling, "AAAAH!" She pulls her hands away and stares at them with her mouth in a wide "O" shape, then covers her face again and yells some more, "GAAAAAAAAAAAAH! THAT FUCKING HURT!" She tries to lunge forward at Yuuka, but misses and is immediately slugged again. She repeats this about 2 or 3 more times before finally just doubling over in face-pain.

"Are you really being this stupid?" Yuuka asks, somewhat surprised and about to laugh. She walks right over Reimu, making sure to step on the several times, and then sprouts her giant wings open and begins to take off with Takara on her shoulder, just about to wake up.

Whilst flying low altitude above the village, Takara happens to wake up in Yuuka's arms. It takes barely a few seconds for her to notice how far up they are, and start freaking out. "Wh-where am I!?" she starts yelling, but is nearly blocked out by the blaring sound of wind rushing past and around them. Yuuka is obviously ignorant of her question, only glancing at her when she begins to struggle and freak out a bit, yelling barely audibly. "Stop, stop, please! Laaand!" Takara continues to scream. Yuuka hears her that time and abides, landing in the nearest opening a long while outside the village, just in eyeshot of the Forest of Magic's edges.

She places the panicking Takara down and crouches down to eye level, asking, "Are you afraid of flying or something?"

"J-Just don't do that!" Takara yells angrily at her.

Yuuka looks puzzled and prods her, "Do what?" Takara struggles to explain and just stutters incomprehensibly. Eventually, she just slaps Yuuka. Of course, Yuuka does not react and just stares at her. After just a half minute, Yuuka asks her, "Want to go back with me?" with an obvlivious smile.

Takara looks to the ground a bit and answers, "Sure..." without much of a choice. She holds Yuuka's left hand with both of hers and tugs on it. Yuuka stands and begins to walk with her back to the Garden of the Sun.

After about 10 minutes of walking, they finally make their way into the garden, though they hadn't said a word to each other. Another few and they finally reach Yuuka's still overly large home. "We're here." Yuuka tiredly but happily says with her arms out. She glances at Takara who just stands there for some reason, Yuuka insists her, "Go on, go in. It's not like I haven't let you in before!"

Takara jumps up as if caught by surprise, but quickly shakes her head and steps up to the door along with Yuuka. They head inside together and go on to Yuuka's bedroom.

As soon as they enter and make themselves comfortable, Yuuka asks, "What happened?"

Takara instantly becomes tense again and answers, barely audibly, "I don't...know."

"I know when someone is lying to me." Yuuka informs her immediately afterwards.

Takara gulps at being caught and answers more truthfully, "They wanted...to...eat me." She looks down at the floor and begins to well up a bit.

Yuuka throws her head up when she hears that and looks at the sullen girl with her lips slightly ajar. She means to ask why, but keeps her mouth shut in fear of causing more discomfort. "I'm sorry..." she instead apologizes for various reasons.

Takara glances over at Yuuka with a few tears in her eyes and looks on with the slightest of smiles but also a sort of confusion over the apology.

"I shouldn't have trusted those animals..." Yuuka mentions. She sighs after a small silence and questions under her breath, "Who are these people?" with her head hanging low with both hands clasped on it.

Takara also looks a bit worried and inches up towards her, planting her own hand on Yuuka's forearm and asking, "Are you...OK?" Yuuka lowers her arm to which Takara flinches a bit, but then stands still while she pets her head.

"It's nothing." Yuuka assures her. "Come, let's get our mind off of this small confusion." Yuuka stands and smiles at Takara who smiles back with her eyebrows doubtfully, slightly raised, not enough to be notice. "So what do you want to do?" Yuuka cheerily asks her. "Anything, really." she adds.

"Can we go to the lake?" Takara quickly replies.

"The lake? Misty Lake?" Yuuka asks for confirmation.

"Yeah!" Takara yells, almost leaping up from where she's standing. Yuuka says nothing, but lifts Takara up and onto her waist with excellent leverage. Takara looks a bit surprised, but hangs on tightly and relaxes while Yuuka proceeds out of the room, then through the hallways, and finally out of the house.

Stepping on the porch, Yuuka asks her finally, "Are you afraid of heights, falling, or flying?"

"M...Mhm..." she says with quite an inflection in her voice. Yuuka nods once and simply carries her off of the porch and begins into the giant field of sunflowers, heading towards the lake...


	4. Chapter 3

The trip to the lake's shore is silent and peaceful, with Yuuka holding onto the little girl like a baby. She has a hand on the back of her head the entire way, petting her over and over with a relaxed yet faint smile. She walks at a steady, slow pace that she is pretty much known for by now and is held down anyways by Takara. She's light, though, so it isn't much. She's also a bit too tall to let lie on Yuuka's bosom, so she just lets her head rest on her right shoulder. She holds the girl with both hands, letting her parasol linger just on her arm by its crook handle. The sun above burns brightly and painfully in the currently hot midday, but Yuuka endures it to hold tightly onto the girl. The hold is not too tight and powerful, just enough to keep Takara latched on but still comfortable, unintentionally showing off the great control of her strength that she has as if it were perfectly natural. About 10 or so minutes in, Yuuka can feel Takara yawning on her shoulder and also yawns instinctively. She laughs after that with just a light giggle at how simple the act is and how much the current menial task at hand contrasts with the previous events that had taken place that very day. More minutes pass, Yuuka starts humming to herself while still steadily walking and holding tightly onto Takara. At one point, she asks, "Are you comfortable?" No response is given, making it clear that she's fallen asleep simply from how calm everything is. " _Maybe she's just tired._ " Yuuka thinks to herself and continues walking. She hasn't noticed until then that Takara had her arms wrapped around her neck the entire time, giving a light hug.

Just as all is well in the world, someone _has_ to show up and ruin it. So, Marisa spots them both from high above with her ludicrously good eyes and thinks aloud, "Is that Yuuka... **holding somebody**?!" She sounds absolutely shocked that such a thing could exist. Then again, a lot of things make Marisa sound shocked, so that isn't really saying anything out of the ordinary. Regardless of how she actually feels, she decides to fly down in front of Yuuka in a rowdy manner. She crashes straight into the ground. Yuuka recoils at the sudden appearance, not helped by Marisa's screaming as soon as she gets up, "Stop right there, corpse smuggler!"

Yuuka covers up Takara's ears and shushes Marisa in a quiet but loud-enough-to-be-heard volume, "Ssshh! Shut the fuck up, you stupid witch!"

"Oh, I got you now! Didn't I, corpse smuggler?" Marisa, again, screams as loud as possible. She has gotten up and stands straight, pointing her finger at Yuuka accusingly. Sort of like Pheonix Wright.

"You're mistaking me for that Kasha." Yuuka corrects her, making a meta pun. She pauses for a moment, then gets back on track, "I said shut it! Don't wake her up; get out of here!" She points towards the invisible door.

Marisa simply huffs and frowns, but then switches to a grin, "Who's that? Your latest victim?" she begins to pester Yuuka about it again. She's still being obnoxiously loud.

"What!? No, you idiot, it's a child- I thought I told you to get out!" Yuuka starts to say in a small bout of panic and frustration. She makes her distaste of the sudden change in atmosphere clear with an angry gritting of her teeth.

"Oh? Get out to where? It's outside!" Marisa decides to be clever, which pisses Yuuka off since what she means should be abundantly clear. Nonetheless, Marisa acts foolish.

"Go home!" Yuuka nearly yells, but keeps herself quiet.

Marisa grins yet again, but wider. Just as she is about to speak, a barrage of flowers hit her in the face! She bends backwards with her hands on her hips and a mouthful of flowers. She stays silent while Yuuka walks towards her and whispers, "I swear, if you scream one more word, I will punch you so hard that the Netherworld will feel it."

Marisa backs up and says in a less excited voice after wiping the flowers from her, "Whoa, no need to be violent, flower girl!" She doesn't really want to fight, obviously. Yuuka just gives her the evil eye. Marisa clears her throat and persists, "Who's that?"

"None of your business." Yuuka scolds her rather bluntly. She tries to pass Marisa up, but is grabbed on the shoulder.

Marisa insists of her, "Come on, don't be cold. Let's see ~ze!" She begins to reach for Takara, but Yuuka slaps her hand and gives her another evil eye. Marisa, being stubborn like she is, still tries and gives Takara a small tug and pat on the head. This disturbs her sleep enough to half-wake her up. As soon as she notices, Yuuka steps on Marisa's left foot with her left. Marisa just barely holds in a scream of sheer pain and simply covers her mouth with both hands. She squeals audibly and starts to tear up, backing away when Yuuka lets go and tends to Takara.

"Yu-Yuukaaaa..." Takara starts to coo in a non-sexual manner, so Yuuka quells her upset cries with "there-there"s and such. "Who is that?" she asks, turning her attention to the whimpering Marisa.

"A bad person." Yuuka tells her, almost teasingly but also serious.

Marisa cries out in protest, "Hey, I'm not a bad person!"

"You called me a corpse smuggler." Yuuka retorts immediately, in disgust. Marisa isn't sure of how to respond to that, so she just shuts up.

Marisa starts to leave now and yells, "I'll be Bach!" before heading off on her broom with a potentially broken left foot and toes.

Yuuka groans despite the problem leaving. She stands still for another few seconds, then sighs and says, "Go back to sleep."

Takara complies, drifting off once again as Yuuka continues her stroll through the garden. That encounter ate up a bit of time, but not enough to be too much of a worry.

They carry on once again, now exiting the flower field and entering a small, open field that separates the field from the Human Village. She gives a sigh upon realizing that she'll have to go right back through there. "Do we have to go there? Can't we just take a trip to the shrine?" Yuuka starts to complain to her passenger. Takara gives no response, so Yuuka suddenly gets the idea to just fly overhead while she's asleep. She sprouts out her giant, plant-like wings and bursts off of the ground while keeping the girl close. On her way, she notices Kourindou down below and decides that it might be a good idea to stop by.

She lands down with less of a presence than before, then just walks straight in with wings retracted. Rinnosuke greets her with a quaint "Hello" but stops short of finishing the greeting when he notices Takara. "Where did you find her!?" he yells out just enough to wake her up again. Yuuka attempts to set the girl on her feet, though she mostly just limps tiredly off. Upon turning around to see who is about to assault her, Takara's eyes widen and she stands straight up with an open smile. Both of them appear extremely happy to see each other and run in to give mutual hugs. Rinnosuke picks her up in the middle of the hug and holds her tighter and tighter, completely overjoyed that she isn't dead or meeting with some other terrible fate. Yuuka just stares where she is, smiling at the two and waiting for her turn.

About a minute passes before the two let go, at which point Yuuka chuckles and asks rhetorically, "Did you miss each other?"

Rinnosuke puts the girl down and nods, "I was worried. Did anything bad happen?"

Yuuka says nothing. She simply walks back towards Takara and picks her up again. "Do you plan on keeping her?" she asks seriously now.

Rinnosuke shrugs, "If she wants to stay here. I'm just glad she isn't hurt."

Yuuka nods in agreement, "Well, she can decide on her own." Takara leans back a bit of distance away from Yuuka, and the two look at each other for a moment before Yuuka finally asks, "You want to decide now?" Takara just shakes her head. "We...will have to wait." Yuuka tells him. "Oh well. Have you anything interesting today?" she changes the topic suddenly.

Rinnosuke is caught off guard by the sudden topic change, showing so visibly with a strange hand gesture that can only be described as the physical manifestation of "OhmygodwhatthehellwasthatIamsodead". He answers her, though, "Oh, not too much. I mean, I don't have anything from the outside world or any plants you don't have yet."

"That's a shame. I'll go then." Yuuka very plainly says as she heads out the door while holding onto Takara.

Rinnosuke stops her right at the doorway with a hand on her shoulder and asks, "Wait, where are you going?"

"The lake." she answers, then adds the question "Why?". She doesn't look back at him, just stands still and leans her head in his direction.

Rinnosuke then thinks for a second and makes an offer, "Might you be interested in some fishing equipment?"

Yuuka looks back at him for real this time and thinks on it. "Sure, what've you got?" she says after a minute.

Rinnosuke shows her to a collection of nets and poles that appear slightly shoddy, but still functional. Then again, they also look really old, so it's to be expected. "This it?" Yuuka asks him in a casual manner.

"Yes. I suppose you want to know what I want for them." Rinnosuke confirms her, then immediately assumes the question. Yuuka nods to, as well, confirm the assumption. "Well, it's free. The least I could do for you helping out the little girl."

Yuuka is slightly surprised by his out-of-character generosity. Despite her surprise, she doesn't show much more than a slight widening of the eyes. "I guess I could take them." she says in a rather monotone voice the next moment.

"Alright. Should I...?" he begins to ask, hoping she'll catch on to the question. Yuuka nods again, then turns around. Rinnosuke hoists the nets up on her shoulder like a drape, attempting to tie the rods and lines up with them and succeeding to a degree. It might just be to show off his skill with tying knots. "Alright, I think that's it. Sorry I don't have any bait." he says as he finishes.

Without another word, Yuuka shifts her arms up and heads out again. She exits the store and checks to see if Takara is asleep; she is. Instead of sprouting wings again, Yuuka decides to take things a bit slower and just hovers up into the sky this time, slowly gliding in the direction of the lake. She thinks to herself while leaving, " _I thought I heard him saying 'goodbye' or 'come back soon' or something like that. Oh well; that was rather awkward._ " A rather mundane thought.

Another few minutes of travel later and they pass over the surrounding forested areas to reach the shores of Misty Lake, which is still shrouded in fog as always. This day, however, it is a bit less damning with the visibility being enough to easily see the silhouette of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and Youkai Mountain in the distance and through the fog. It is rather calm, with few battles happening or fairies causing general mischief. Then again, they could be hiding in the mist for someone to come by whom they may harass. One would be quite sure they wouldn't bother Yuuka at this point in time, however. She knows this and lands near the shore without much worry and maybe even a little overconfidence in the intelligence of brainless immortals.

"Hey, wake up, we're here." Yuuka says to her little girl while shaking her lightly. Takara writhes around in her grip for a moment, then opens her eyes and yawns like the cutest damn thing in the universe. It even makes Yuuka approach nigh-nosebleed levels of Moe Overload.

Takara wakes up a bit more and wiggles out of grip to stand on the ground and look out at the lake. Her eyes widen a bit at the sight and her only words are a very quiet, "Wow." She turns back to Yuuka and notices the brown, shoddy equipment, then asks about it.

"Well, we have something to do. Have you ever gone fishing?" Yuuka answers with a follow-up question. Takara just shakes her head. Yuuka isn't that surprised, but still somehow disappointed. Regardless, she takes the crap off and throws it to the ground beside her. She begins to sort it out and figure out what to do while Takara just wanders off near the shore to look down into the water whimsically. Suddenly, something cold and soft hits Yuuka's back. She immediately freezes in place and turns her head slowly to see who it is. Who else but Cirno armed with snowballs!? She throws another, but Yuuka simply stabs it in midair with her pointy parasol. Then it happens again. Then again. She keeps it up until the tip is encased in snow. "...Shishkebab." Yuuka simply comments after a moment. It does, indeed, look like a snowball shishkebab. She does what one does with a shishkebab and takes a bite out of it. She scolds Cirno, "It's cold and tastes like dirt. You're a terrible cook."

Cirno screams like a baby and hits her in the face with another, then yells at her in a panic, "Get out, get out, get out, get out!" Yuuka raises an eyebrow and wipes the snow off of her face. She sort of just stares at the fairy who is now trying and failing to gun her with more snow. They all just miss. When she finally runs out, Yuuka gives a thumbs up, probably to patronize Cirno. The fairy runs away, crying in fear. Yuuka sighs and turns her attention back to unfurling the equipment. Takara is nowhere to be found when she looks, but she decides to not worry about it yet and just focuses on the task.

About 10 minutes later, everything is sorted and set out as evenly as she could get it. No sign of Takara, still. Yuuka calls her, but no answer. At this point, she's a bit worried and goes to the edge of the lake to look around the shores. Still, no answer. Despite walking for what seems like an hour, she finds nothing and just goes back the way she came with her head low, staring at the cold dirt. She eventually returns to the setup spot and grabs the old pole that has already been strung with a line, bobber, and hook. She sits down by the shore, not even bothering to bait the hook before tossing it out. She sticks the thing into the ground and just sits there, curled into an upright fetal position and looking out into the fog. She sits there, waiting, waiting, waiting for something; just staring off into nothingness and idly wandering in mind alone. For a long while she sits there with nothing happening, nothing quite well, all just grey and empty. It is less of in a bored manner and more in a lifeless one, like she had just turned into a sad statue.

After another short time, a familiar figure comes up from behind and says, "I'm back." It's Reimu, staring down at her with a rather agitated look, but one that is also vaguely confused at what she's looking at. Yuuka gives her no acknowledgement. "Hey," Reimu calls her again "what's your problem?" Yuuka stiffens up and tries to look as stoic as possible but also convey that she doesn't feel quite like fighting. Reimu is ignorant and begins to yell as she draws closer, "Hey, did you hear me!?" She grabs Yuuka's head with her right hand and stares down at her, demanding, "Talk." Just as she does this, Yuuka grabs her forearm and grips it like an aggressive vice.

She looks up at Reimu and growls in disgust, "Get your hand off of me, you damned miko." Her voice is incredibly deep and very clearly more than angry. Reimu yanks her hand away and keeps the injured part close to herself. She backs up and grits her teeth in a small amount of surprise mixed with frustration. Yuuka simply glances back at her and begins to stare with her eyes wider than usual. They glare at each other for a solid minute before either says anything. Yuuka scowls at her just as she's about to speak, "It's your fault that this has happened. You, that fraud, and the foolish scribe. Just leave me alone already." Reimu can't say anything in response except for a faint grunt and unintelligible hesitations.

Just as Yuuka is about to turn her head away and ignore her, Reimu calls out to her, "What are you talking about!?" in an almost offended tone.

"Like you don't know." Yuuka scoffs.

"I...don't."

Yuuka stands up after that and begins to walk towards her rather slowly with her head down and with a rather limp posture. She comes close, grabs Reimu's chin with two fingers and pulls it down until they're staring at each other. "If you came looking for a fight, you're about to pick it. With this sheer obliviousness to your own actions - take responsibility already; you know what you did, don't you? How couldn't you unless you're still just a child?"

Reimu reactively slugs her in the face and screams, "Shut up!" at the same time. She slowly realizes what she just did as Yuuka just turns back to her with an even more agitated look.

"I see." she says, simply backing away and turning towards the lake. "Leave. For once, I do not wish to fight you." She sits down by the lake's shore and starts to wait once more.

Meanwhile, Reimu thinks to herself, " _She's pretty intimidating today. I won't take that, though...I'll just attack and see what happens!_ "

With that, she points at Yuuka and yells, "That's it! I challenge you, then! 2 spells, that's all!"

Yuuka stands up again, slower than last, and asks, "If you win...?"

"You tell me what your problem is! Oh, and you treat me." Reimu demands.

"And if I win..." Yuuka begins to refute, turning towards her "...you leave me alone."

"It's settled." Reimu agrees as she starts to rise from the ground. Yuuka does not rise, but instead just stands there, staring Reimu down as she begins her first attack. Reimu quickly flies upwards and immediately begins to zoom in circles around Yuuka at a relatively high speed, enough to pass by her vision every second. Yuuka doesn't pay much attention until she suddenly begins tossing rapid-fire amulets in the typical 4-pronged fan shape. She flinches slightly but manages to stand perfectly still and completely avoid them all. Reimu is a bit impressed that she didn't move and get hit. She rectifies this by firing off several randomly oriented, red light orbs that are larger than either of them. With these, she also drops a yin-yang orb that hits the ground just to the left of Yuuka and bounces right over her head. Yuuka sighs as 3 of the orbs fly straight at her, then she leaps straight up with a burst of speed that is rather unlike her. She grazes past the yin-yang orb and forces Reimu to reorient her aim, during which time Yuuka decides to unleash two black orbs with a yellow outline that quickly make their way from her, then slow down, and then home in on Reimu with linear acceleration. She hesitates and stops firing and moving for a second to register what they are, then remembers to dash backwards at the last moment as the worm-like blasts come in from her flank and fly right past her front in an intersection before flying off into the distance and fading away.

"You know how to make those!?" Reimu yells in utter surprise that such old danmaku was still being used. She gets shut up when she notices that a huge barrage of seemingly randomly fired flowers have a near-miss with her. She charges to the side to avoid another follow up of a thin laser being dragged towards her. While charging, she starts firing off occasional cones of amulets, followed by an aimed, wide stream of Persuasion Needles. Yuuka decides to be lazy and move just fast enough to the side to graze the needles and slip just past the outskirts of the cones, as the amulets have a pretty unreliable density. After about 10 seconds of constant streaming, Yuuka decides to throw a curveball and shoot off a static omnidirectional blast of several dozen red balls. Reimu stops firing for a moment, but quickly realizes that she's in no real danger and continues to pressure Yuuka. She gets a bit frustrated at having to try and does so, now starting to send off a very spread-out barrage of flowers directly at Reimu, who begins to waver like a sine wave to try and mess with her. This doesn't work very well, and Reimu finds herself about to be trapped in the barrage a few seconds later. She panics instead of thinking and pulls out her first card, which she declares, "Dream Sign 'Evil Sealing Circle'!" All of the danmaku around her is instantly destroyed when she uses it, then at least 22 streams of amulets begin firing from her center that then split like branches into over a hundred more streams in total, all practically covering the surrounding area in thousands of amulets every second!

Though the sheer numbers are high, it's only for looks as the streams merely prevent Yuuka from moving in a large area. She sticks to the center of the small area that the streams have restricted her to, not daring much to try and navigate through them with her more than leisurely flight speed. Reimu stays like that for a few seconds, but then throws out at least 46 of those giant yin-yang orbs back and above her, which then fall back down and harmlessly to the sides. That section of the attack was completely pointless and wouldn't have hurt her anyways. Yuuka chuckles a bit at that and decides to start firing her rapid-fire barrage of spread-out flower danmaku. Reimu begins to rotate rather slowly to change the overall trajectory of the attack while launching off a nearly sold sphere of tiny white pellets that freeze some point out and almost directly in front of Yuuka. She begins to back up and follow the talismans as they drag to her left when the tiny pellets all transform into scale danmaku and launch themselves outwards one by one. They spread out fairly wide and allow her to just graze through them with minimal trouble. She continues this cycle for another dozen seconds but at some point misses a sudden rotation and gets caught by one! She gets slapped straight in the face with an amulet and gets flung out-of-bounds, but she returns just a moment after. The spell resumes and she takes better care to stay in the middle. She eventually cancels the spell and sends Reimu flying out-of-bounds as well.

Given the time, Yuuka decides to declare her own attack which she names, "Directed Chaos 'Logic Survey'." Reimu attempts to remember everything that Yuuka can do, but can't quite figure out from the name, what she's about to do. Yuuka points her parasol at her and closes it, then a huge, shadowy orb envelopes her and begins to slowly collapse as the edges fire off diagonally fired and alternating white pellets with practically uncountable numbers. Luckily, they only travel away. Reimu begins to panic, however, and attempts to dodge the non-existent attack that is launched at her, only to almost be met with the blasts. She backs away right back to the center and looks a bit surprised. As the orb deflates, Yuuka opens her umbrella back up to launch an all-encompassing spread of white pellets that slowly make their way toward Reimu. Only 3 short streams of the pellets get within the orb's previous location, so Reimu figures to only slip between two of them. The bullets slowly fade and fly away, then Yuuka unleashes the same pattern again. Reimu stays completely still and waits for the spread shot to move slightly to the right, of course while now firing off her own rapid-fire homing amulets to pelt Yuuka. This doesn't go on for long before the spell is cancelled out and they begin to circle around each other and let off more aimed shots.

Yuuka decides to let out her second card first and declares it as, "Orbital 'Stormy Sun'." She flies high up and lets loose a huge, swirling sphere of over 200 golden flowers that stop some point away, then she fires out another that stop a little farther out. They pause for a moment, then break when she moves and they start flying outwards while spinning and intersecting with each other as two separate layers. Reimu flies as far away and to the right as humanly possible, getting almost to the ground, then waits for the giant flowers to pass by and _still_ nearly smack her in the face. While she's busy avoiding those, Yuuka gets above her and rains down a shower of random white pellet danmaku that are far less dense. Reimu zips past the second layer of flowers and through a gap in the raining pellets, then finally begins to fire at Yuuka again. She fires another two spheres of flowers and Reimu attempts to retreat again, but misjudges the speed of the flowers and gets hit from behind where four of them intersect. She gets flung into the ground by those but recovers fairly quickly. By the time she does, Yuuka has sent out the shower of pellets again and another wave of flowers. She manages to squeeze right past the waves by flying directly at them, but just barely. Another wave later, she manages to cancel it out just before getting hit by a flower.

They both take a moment to catch their breath, but resume with Reimu declaring her last spell, "Spirit Sign 'Fantasy Seal'!" She uses it immediately after declaring again. As soon as it's declared, she sends out a shockwave of amulets and orbs and a single yin-yang orb that catch Yuuka off-guard with their speed. The huge orb smashes into her and flings her into the ground again, only for her to get back up a second later. Reimu flies to her side and lets another shockwave loose. This one is easy to dodge; Yuuka only needs to jeer slightly to the right. Reimu speeds up her seals and it quickly leaves an unreasonable amount of lingering projectiles in midair. These become a nuisance to fly around but are, thankfully, not very dense. Out of the corner of her eye, though, Yuuka sees some sort of small, silhouetted figure that catches her eye. She turns her attention immediately to see it and is about to yell something, but quickly get hit directly by a stream of amulets and an orb. She gets flung again down to the ground and, this time, explodes into a golden light upon impact. She looks rather worn out, lying on the ground afterwards, so Reimu stops her spell and declares victory.

She floats down to the ground and lands softly, just a few feet in front of Yuuka who is just now standing up and looking just slightly beaten up. In fact, Reimu also looks that way. She looks down and catches her breath before speaking up, "Alright, I win. Get up and follow me." She offers her hand to Yuuka who swats it away and crosses her own arms with her umbrella hanging off of the left. They begin to leave the area, but Yuuka stops after a dozen or so paces and looks back. Reimu eventually stops and looks back at her, then calls out, "Hey, catch up!" Yuuka doesn't display that she's listening and just barely takes a few idle steps forward. Reimu groans and stomps over towards her, grabs her sleeve and tries pulling her.

She almost whispers in a faint protest, "I don't want to leave..."

Though Reimu can't see her expression, she can feel the emotion being given off. She sighs and places a hand on Yuuka's shoulder. She doesn't react much if at all. "Hey," Reimu tries to say in a compassionate tone "I know you're not alright. That doesn't mean what you're doing is acceptable right now." This kind of pisses Yuuka off; she scoffs and makes a bit of a difficult face.

Yuuka turns around and retracts her expression. "Just keep going." she says a moment later. They continue forth with the only passing statement said on the way to their next location being, "I was going to have a good time until you showed up..." said by Yuuka with an obvious hint of frustration. To that, Reimu has not real response. They simply go onwards, though only Reimu will decide where to go.


	5. Chapter 4

It only takes about 10 minutes to reach their destination. Reimu had led Yuuka to the bar she had brazenly left earlier. Apparently, it not only sells saké but also grilled fish and other moderate meals. Mostly just grilled fish, though. When she and Yuuka come in, the people sitting around almost turn to greet her but notice Yuuka and instead just turn back around, fall silent, and scoot a little ways away from her general direction. It makes a convenient straight path to the bar counter, though. They walk over there with Yuuka hanging her head low and trying to not attract any more attention.

They settle each in a chair when she asks, "What do you want me to get you, exactly?" Her tone is a little somber, but otherwise apathetic.

"Hokke Yakizakana. With green tea." she answers almost immediately after, as if she already knew what she wanted before coming in.

"Right..." Yuuka seems a bit annoyed, but is still glad that it's at least quicker than browsing a menu for several minutes. She shakes her head from thought and calls the waiter at the counter over. She tells him what to get but gets an unexpected reaction. The waiter starts to stutter and freak out a little from what is presumably the sight of her. He runs off before she can say anything further.

"Does he have no charisma or something?" Reimu asks rhetorically.

They wait a while for the food to be prepared fresh. While they do, they both notice how quiet the entire room is. They then realize that everyone is vaguely staring in their direction but not making eye contact with either one. Reimu is visibly bewildered but doesn't say much else. Additionally, Yuuka is now personally confused by Reimu's expression! She turns to look at her, and the two are now staring right at each other without knowing exactly why. They keep staring until it becomes awkward and then slowly look down on the counter.

Eventually, the dish is delivered along with a couple cups of tea. Another oddity is that no price is asked of them.

"Hey, what's this?" Reimu calls to and asks the person who delivered the dish, referring to the extra cup.

"Oh, it's complimentary!" he hesitantly responds.

"Weird..." Reimu comments before she starts to leisurely eat.

A minute or two in, Yuuka finally asks, "Did you notice that?"

"No?" Reimu has no idea of what she's referring to.

"They didn't charge us."

"...You're right!" Reimu suddenly realizes after about 10 seconds of thinking on it.

"Well...I guess that's good. I didn't bring any money." Yuuka quietly admits to her. Reimu just stares at her with a glare of disappointment.

"Don't you mug people for a living?" she asks. Yuuka flicks her head hard enough to make her head bob backwards. Reimu chuckles despite the pain and continues to eat. Soon enough, she realizes that Yuuka didn't order anything. "Hey, you want some?" she asks, sliding the wooden plate towards her. Yuuka declines with a hand gesture.

After another 5 minutes of Reimu taking her sweet, sweet time, (much to Yuuka's displeasure) she finally finishes. She waits a bit for some reason or another, then gestures for them to slip out. They both get up and leave together, out the front door.

"What the hell was that about?" Reimu asks, again, rhetorically, but with more confusion than before. She also says it rather loudly. Yuuka says nothing and even starts to walk away, but Reimu stops her to remind her, "Hey, you still need to tell me what's up with _you._ " She puts emphasis on the "you".

Yuuka looks back at her and asks in an odd, almost disgusted voice, "In public?"

"Well, not if you don't want..." Reimu concedes, realizing that denying the implied request would be pretty damn cold and unsympathetic. She suggests that they go to her shrine, which Yuuka agrees to, then turn to leave. However, they then notice another green-head standing around in the street and _blatantly advertising_ the Moriya Shrine.

The atmosphere around Yuuka suddenly becomes so intense that even Reimu's usual apathetic attitude can feel it. Yuuka just starts to scowl and grit her teeth at the simple sight of the girl. Her entire body just _looks_ like it's about to explode at any minute.

"Hey, hey, calm down..." Reimu begins to tell her, grabbing onto her shoulder. Yuuka twitches angrily and flings Reimu's hand away with her arm.

"I'm about to wreck a bitch..." she says with utter hatred as she begins to quickly stomp towards the display. Reimu stops her just moments into the walk and gives her a hard tug. Yuuka stops for just a moment and is about to react rather violently, but then stops to think for a moment. She settles down a bit and refrains from starting another fight at the expense of bloody satisfaction.

Without another word, they head off in the opposite direction and cut through a few alleys to get to the path on towards the Hakurei Shrine. They fly up the steps instead of walking and save a dozen or so minutes. Getting there, Reimu rushes to get inside and fling her shoes off.

"So sloppy." Yuuka comments.

"And whose house is overgrown with trees and infested with bugs?" Reimu retorts with a rather snide smile but a very serious tone. Yuuka just scoffs and takes her shoes off as well.

They make their way into the quaint little building and are met by Suika sleeping on top of the Kotatsu. Reimu scoffs this time and kicks Suika until she rolls off. That is, around 2 or 3 dozen times. "It's sore now..." she says afterwards. She sits down and Yuuka follows, first punting Suika out of the way again. They sit on opposite ends of the table and only Reimu sets her head down. They just sit there for a bit until she finally asks, "Well? You're not shy, are you?"

Yuuka puts her elbow on the table and cups her head in the corresponding hand. She sighs and waits a bit more before asking, "Did you notice anything missing at the lake?"

Reimu has to think about this one. She gives it a minute, but then it clicks. "I remember you had that little girl with you."

"Right." Yuuka confirms.

"But she was just gone and you looked real-" she stops suddenly and then finally gets it. "Ooooooh!" Or so Yuuka thought. "I don't get it." Reimu then admits haphazardly.

Yuuka groans in disappointment, then elaborates, "She just disappeared when we went to the lake."

"What, you mean you liked her or something?"

"I guess you could say that. She was at least cute."

"Looked like it. So you don't know where she went?"

Yuuka suddenly looks more depressed, "No..."

Reimu raises her head up finally, "Why do you like her anyways?"

Yuuka snaps at her, "I already told you."

Reimu insists, "Come on, it can't just be 'she's cute', you gotta have a better reason than that to get attached to a little kid in less than a day."

"I..." Yuuka starts to speak, but can't quite come up with an answer that she likes.

"Kids don't really like you too much, do they?" Reimu says without thinking.

As one might expect, Yuuka gets visibly upset. She doesn't say anything besides a quiet, "Why you..." without an ending. At the same time, she thinks to herself, " _She has the fucking nerve to say that!? Thoughtless damn humans._ " However, she says the last sentence aloud.

"Oh, sorry." Reimu apologizes half-heartedly. Yuuka is about to respond, but Reimu quickly changes subjects to avoid an altercation. "So why do you suddenly hate Sanae so much? I know she can be pretty annoying and childish at times, but it looked like you were about to tear her apart."

Yuuka jumps up and yells at the mention, " **That little brat is the reason that everybody fucking hates me!** " She says it very quickly and concisely, but still has to nearly pant to keep herself from going into a rage.

"Jeez, calm down." Reimu very, very simply suggests as if the anger is misplaced.

Yuuka is still angry and shows it by clenching her hands into a fist so hard that her nails pierce the palm and make blood start seeping down it. "That's easy for you to say." she says in a poor attempt to calm down again.

Reimu stands up and walks over to her, then grabs both of her shoulders and shakes her a bit, "I said calm down. You'll end up killing somebody else-" but she is once again interrupted by Yuuka who just shoves her to the side and takes a few steps towards the exit.

She turns after that and faces her, "I don't want to hear it!"

She's about to turn to leave, but a collection of annoying people come by and one familiar person yells, "Hey Yuuka!" She does turn, but also does so with her right fist clenched as hard as possible and still bleeding. She prepares to slug whoever is standing in the front door, but stops abruptly when she realizes who it is: Takara, Cirno, Daiyousei, and some other fairy holding a sunflower assembled together. Cirno is floating, and Yuuka just missed her head by a few centimeters to the side. _She could feel the wind pass her_. They all freeze completely and fall silent. Droplets of blood are dripping and falling on Takara's face, running down her forehead, nose, and cheek. Looking back, Reimu was reaching out in an attempt to stop her, but is now also frozen. Everybody is just standing there, not sure of how to react. Especially Yuuka, who looks figuratively pale as a ghost.

"T-Takara, you liar! She's not nice!" Cirno yells at her, breaking the silence before flying off in a temper. Daiyousei follows close behind.

Yuuka takes her hand slowly back and opens it, letting the rest of the blood drip onto the floor before it begins to scab over. Takara is still standing completely still, looking up at her with a...look; just a blank stare. Yuuka holds her bloody hand against her chest and holds it tightly, then apologizes quietly. The sunflower fairy carefully approaches her, but suddenly flinches and flies a bit backwards when Yuuka reaches out to her. She also brings her hand back and gives a light gasp. The sunflower fairy gets spooked and flies away.

"Wh-what just happened?" Yuuka asks with sincerity and a low, shocked voice. Of course, nobody answers.

Reimu doesn't know what to say, Suika's asleep, she can't answer herself, and Takara doesn't even know what blood is despite witnessing murder, as indicated by her next dialogue, "What's this red stuff?"

Yuuka chokes up a little, but holds back and picks her up with a simple answer to speak, "Blood. It comes out when people hurt." She hugs Takara closely to finish, making the blood on her hand stain Takara's white dress.

"Are you hurt?" she asks. Reimu can feel how hard that hit from several feet back. Yuuka just cringes and nearly tears up.

She holds it back, however, and just replies, "Yes...let's just go home." She lets Takara down and tells her to go ahead and wait at the torii. She does so, and Yuuka turns back around to face Reimu. She approaches alone and gives Yuuka a very sympathetic hug. Yuuka doesn't hug back, but just sighs and says goodbye. It's only just now that she realizes that it's become sundown.

Yuuka proceeds towards the torii after retrieving her shoes, in a leisurely stroll that is indicative of her usual self, still trying to take in everything that happened today. Just as she's about halfway there, however, Reimu calls out to her again as she runs forwards, "Wait, one more question!" She gets there in a few seconds and Yuuka stops to hear her out. "How long has it been like this?"

Yuuka thinks for a moment, but can't come up with an accurate answer, "I don't know. Maybe since the end of winter."

Reimu nods and lets her go on her way. She does and meets Takara at the top of the steps. She picks her up and takes a moment to stare at the sunset and cheer herself up a little. It lasts for a few moments until she decides to finally leave. Given that Takara doesn't like flying, Yuuka just hovers, low, down the steps.

Reimu smiles and is convinced that this was an okay end to the day. She's about to go back in but is suddenly stopped by none other than Aya Shameimaru. Aya throws her arm over Reimu's shoulder and stands on one leg while staring off at the same sunset. She whistles and says, "The tip that witch gave me was right. That shot was amazing; it'll definitely be on the front page! Imagine it, a wide, beautiful sunset aligned within the torii of the Hakurei Shrine with a mysterious silhouetted woman and child standing by, looking off into it! That's some art right there."

"You're a journalist; what do you know about art?" Reimu insults her.

"How rude!" Aya yells. The two continue to bicker about art for the rest of the evening.

On the way back home, Yuuka decides to ask, "Were those your friends?"

"Yeah." Takara answers.

"Cirno and…?" she trails off after the "and".

"Dai-chan and Kona-chan." Takara sounds a bit sultry, but Yuuka can't see her face as it's hoisted over her shoulder.

"Right. Aren't they pretty...stupid?" Yuuka tries to not sound insulting.

"Kind of..." Takara admits "...but they're nice."

"Define 'nice'." Yuuka asks, intending a bit of humor.

"They usually are." Takara corrects herself.

They stop talking for a few minutes, at least until Yuuka apologizes. "Why?" Takara raises her head up and asks.

"I scared them off." Yuuka answers without looking back up.

Takara can't say anything in return, so she just rests her head again and waits a little longer.

They say nothing else the entire trip. Yuuka simply assumes that the entire time Takara was missing, she had just met those three and spent her time with them. She figures that they either followed her to the shrine or the fairies just know the land, so to speak, better than they let off. She's more or less relieved that she now knows where the child was, but also a little perplexed at how she could be attached to her after such a short time. _"Could she just be cute? Is that really it?"_ she begins to think _"I know there haven't been a lot of things around lately, but it's not been that long. What the hell is up with her? How can she act so innocent, how...HOW!?"_ She just keeps questioning everything that has happened so far with about as much confidence as a puppy with two broken legs. She starts to get frustrated but doesn't give in the desire to let loose just yet. A ton of "random" thoughts cross her mind the rest of the time, but are of negligible importance. They're just there to distract her: things like what tomorrow will be like, how long until autumn, whether there will be rain, what kind of flowers she'll see when she stops thinking about all of this stupid shit. Then Sanae comes to mind again, but only for a split moment, but just long enough to make her grit her teeth again, stiffen up, and slow down to nearly a stop. She stops thinking about it and takes her mind to what the newspaper may say tomorrow. _"It's really the only thing that's been keeping me up-to-date recently, isn't it?"_ she realizes.

They finally arrive just when twilight can be easily seen. Takara has just about fallen asleep again. _"She sleeps a lot. I wonder if she'll stay awake tonight."_ Yuuka thinks to herself. She whispers it as well, though. She walks in and lets out a heavy sigh of relief to be back home. She sets her parasol down by the door where it usually goes and takes her shoes off for the last time of the day. She carries Takara up the stairs and down the halls to her bedroom, then lays her down there. She doesn't wake up quite yet. While she's still asleep, Yuuka slips out of her daytime attire and into her nightgown and cap. By now, the entire bedroom is almost completely black aside from those hauntingly pretty night bugs lighting up the walls. The entire atmosphere has switched from incredibly tense to tired and calm in just one trip. It makes her greatly appreciate having such a home. At night, it looks dank and dark but is actually quite comfortable and spacious to those with an open mind. Yuuka climbs into her bed and pull Takara up to a comfortable position, which actually wakes her. She panics a little from the darkness until being held by Yuuka, who calms her by shooting up a ball of light into the skylight above. It illuminates the room in a cyan light and makes the mansion look briefly like a lighthouse from afar. The two settle down and get comfortable.

Yuuka tries to tell her to get to sleep, but Takara is a bit concerned, "Is it really okay to sleep here?"

"Why not?" Yuuka simply says.

Takara still doesn't want to sleep quite yet, "C-can we at least talk a bit?"

"It's been a long day..." Yuuka complains. Takara gives her a look that she can just barely see, but is still heavily affected by; she easily gives up, "Alright, but just a little." Takara stops making the face and hugs Yuuka, who blushes and hugs her back. _"Dammit, she's just too much."_ she thinks.

When they part, Takara almost immediately asks, "Who was that girl you were talking to?"

"Oh, that's Reimu. We go back a long ways. Let's just say she's one of the more important people here." Yuuka explains.

"Her clothes are weird." Takara bluntly comments.

Yuuka makes a slightly snide comment as well, "Sometimes I think she's an exhibitonist. Those aren't even traditional." She chuckles afterwards.

"What about the other one?"

"What other one?" Yuuka looks puzzled, but that's not quite apparent in total darkness.

"The one with the wings and the camera and the funny shoes!" Takara explains, now clearly referring to Aya.

"Oh, Aya. Wait, where was she?"

"Behind the other girl."

Yuuka is a little annoyed that Aya was spying on them, but not really surprised. She seems like the sort of youkai that would stalk people. "Odd." she simply says. "Well, she's the Tengu that writes for the newspaper. Don't mind her."

"Newspaper?"

"Do you not know what- Never mind." Yuuka begins to ask, but the question is answered before it's asked. "A bunch of papers with pictures and words that tell you what's happening."

"Oooohhh." Takara coos at the thought.

"Yes, but don't believe whatever it says. She's been known to...exaggerate things." This is an understatement. Aya is _very prone_ to exaggerating things for publicity. Then again, that's politics, and Gensokyo politics make even less sense than the outside world's. That being known, she eagerly drops the subject of Gensokyo Politics for something that a child (or any sane person) can understand, "So what were you doing with those three?"

"They were showing me some things."

"Like…?"

Takara elaborates with just a little visible excitement, "There's a huge building on the other side of the lake with a dragon guarding it. There's also this huge mountain near it. They told me there's a shrine on top where the frog god lives."

"So you're all friends?"

"Yeah."

"Did you...tell them about me?" There's a silence after Yuuka says that. She eventually assumes that the answer is 'yes' and asks, "What exactly did you say?"

"That you're nice. That you helped me with things and...you know." Takara sort of trips over her words and ends up not being very informative, but Yuuka understands what she's trying to say. She also feels a bit worse about what happened earlier.

"So what else?"

Takara rambles on about how cool the fairies are and what the humans they met were like. She recalls them being a bit creepy but still nice except for a few who would scream "Oni" when they saw her and would try to pelt her and her friends on sight. In her rambling, she doesn't notice how Yuuka simply falls asleep in the middle. She does as well, but much later. Luckily, Yuuka doesn't snore, so her feelings aren't hurt. They both end up asleep, curled up against each other in a lazy, laid out manner. In the hallways of the mansion, giant balls of eerie light float around freely as restless spirits and illuminate the entire house. They dance around in happiness and let out pleasant dreams to reward the two for their long day. Even as the moon reaches high, they linger and grow until they fade into ether and embody the night. Soundly, Gensokyo manages to sleep despite the unrest; even nocturnal youkai are somehow calmed, some thinking that it foreshadows good luck. In short, it is a peaceful night made to juxtapose the hectic day where most of the energy was spent for some reason.

 


	6. Chapter 5

Over and onto the following day, Yuuka finds herself fond of sleeping in, letting only the rays of the midday sun beaming through the skylight above her awaken her. She comes to, not finding the little oni from the day before. She seems to have gone without a trace. She sits up and looks around for just a moment, then decides to get dressed.

A few minutes later, she heads out the bedroom door without much of a reaction to the sudden mystery. She goes around her house, just walking around aimlessly and wondering if what she just experienced was a dream. It saddens her a bit to think about it, so she tries to forget. It doesn't work too well with the memory sitting at the back of her head, melded with the total serenity of what feels like morning; just a purgatory of soundless, peaceful thought. Despite the calmness, she still feels restless and wanders around a bit more as if she were exploring some unfamiliar home.

Eventually, she gives up trying to reason with herself and tries to think about something else. She decides to head outside through the front door, but is stopped by something tugging on her dress. She looks down and back and sees Takara standing there, quietly hugging a part of her dress. Yuuka smiles, finally realizing that the previous events really did happen. She then frowns, however, realizing the the previous events really did happen. This fades back into a smile as she shakes her head and picks Takara up, hoisting her up and holding her against her chest like a baby.

After a few moments of holding and hugging, Takara speaks up, "Can we go back to that girl's house?"

Yuuka wonders what she's talking about, thinking back to the previous day, then asks, "The shrine?" Takara gives her a quizzical stare, so Yuuka clarifies, "Red and white?" Takara nods and smiles faintly. Yuuka smiles as well and says, "Sure." They subsequently head off for Reimu's place.

On the way, Yuuka comments, "You like to go off on your own, don't you?" Takara nods against her shoulder silently. "Wandering off and looking at things, just being carefree..." Yuuka continues "...we're similar, you and I. What exactly were you doing, anyways?"

"Playing with the fairies. They're really nice." Takara buries her face into Yuuka's shoulder a little.

She raises an eyebrow, "Eh? But they're so stupid!"

"No they're not!" Takara lifts herself up and starts yelling.

Yuuka chuckles and continues to tease her, "Maybe you should hang out with more intelligent things, like that tree over there!" She points at a tree of a hundred others in the near distance, just as they approach the Forest of Magic.

Takara pouts and leans forward again, letting out an obnoxious groan. Yuuka pats her on the back and points out, "Hey, we'll be there pretty soon. What did you want to do there?"

"Just walk around and look at things, I guess." Takara nuzzles into her shoulder a little.

"Just walk around and look at things..." Yuuka whispers to herself. She relaxes herself, closes her eyes, sighs, and starts to stride leisurely in the absence of normal walking. "I wonder what that means." she adds.

"Huh?" Takara pokes her head back up.

Yuuka dismisses it, "Nothing, don't worry about it."

A few minutes later, they're already at the numerous steps heading up towards the shrine. Yuuka prepares to fly up, but Takara objects once more, forcing them to use the steps. Takara seems to relax at each step, but it begins to wear Yuuka out significantly even only halfway up. She eventually stops stepping and starts leaping just to save a little bit of time. It still takes a while, but they eventually make it all the way up to meet Reimu sweeping dirt off the walkway this early in the morning.

She spots the two and waves, yelling, "Oii! Welcome back!"

Yuuka waves back and approaches, "I brought this one with me, too." She sets Takara down and pats her on the back.

Reimu crouches down and stares at her for a moment; she softly asks the child, "So what's your name?"

"Ta-ka-ra." the girl enunciates clearly, looking up at Reimu wide-eyed who introduces herself in turn.

"I'm Reimu." she pats Takara's head "Don't go and cause any trouble around me."

Takara looks quite upset about that, with a very cute, scared fidgeting. She grabs Yuuka's dress and hangs close to her. Reimu sighs and turns around to head inside, beckoning the two to follow.

"You should go and meet the other youkai." Yuuka suggests "There's one that always hangs around here; I think you'll like her!" She smiles at her, nearly closing both eyes and tilting her head. Takara smiles back and follows as they head into the shrine itself. There, Takara separates from the others to meet Suika behind the building while Yuuka and Reimu hang around for a while.

Yuuka approaches the kotatsu; Reimu holds out her hand towards her while placing the broom against the wall, "Hey, you want something? I've got plenty to drink." She makes a slightly exaggerated quizzical expression with a cocked eyebrow.

Yuuka gestures "stop" with her hand while sitting. She acts aloof and anxious, "No, not really in the mood." Both of her elbows hit the tabletop, hands cuffed around her cheeks.

"Right..." she trails off, slowly lower her hand and wandering around the room for a moment until she finds a particular roll of paper. She tosses it on the table after checking it and states, "Ah, you made the front page. It got here just about an hour ago" She circles back around and takes a seat, lying back and holding herself up with both arms.

"She's fast." Yuuka says as she picks up the paper and unrolls it, taking a look at the front page. Right there, printed on the paper just above a long article is a landscape shot of Yuuka holding Takara and descending the steps of the shrine while the sun sets on the forested horizon, the torii towering above them and everything but the sky heavily silhouetted like the buildings in a skyline. Only the vague shape and light shading of the photo could hint that it's Yuuka who's standing there.

"Oh. That's pretty." she compliments, placing the rest of the roll down and looking away, back at the torii and imagining the shot in perspective. She spends a few long seconds lost in the ether until Reimu questions her.

"Hey, so what are you doing back here? We had pretty good closure yesterday." She's now taken up the same stance as Yuuka had earlier.

Yuuka takes a moment to answer, liking to look back with deliberation think the response through. Finally, she bluntly states, "No. She just dragged me here." She swipes one hand across her face and rubs her inner eye with the other's thumb. She leans on the former and chews on the thumb.

Reimu leans on one hand more, running its fingers through her hair; she stares intently at Yuuka and measures her answer, " **Did you remember what happened?** "

 **Yuuka bites her thumb, breaking the skin briefly** ; droplets of blood leak down and are swiftly taken by her tongue swiping by. She answers hesitantly, leaning around and making _indirect eye contact_ , "Until you mentioned it?" She masks the question as a statement. " _What do you think?_ " she counters, switching to her index finger.

Reimu barely holds back a smirk as she edges out, sucking air through her teeth, " **Formidable.** " She throws both hands onto the table and shakes her head. "Well..." she hesitates "...try confrontation. _Just don't get me involved._ " and then looks away.

"That answers my _next_ question." Yuuka giggles, almost adorably enough to make Reimu smile, but she just grins. Yuuka spends the next few minutes simply staring at her, anticipating something and continuing to chew on her finger. _She shifts her legs around and fidgets, breathing irregularly and narrowing her gaze on Reimu's hand._

 **As soon as it begins to move, she bites down on the index finger enough to make it drip profusely with blood.** She swings it down and meets Reimu's hand as it reaches the center of the table. **The blood drips down and onto the back of Reimu's hand, the saliva smears across her wrist.** She retracts her hand quickly; the fluids further smear onto her hand. Her eyebrows scrunch, she looks half-disgusted and half-angry, but easily switches to looking worried. Her sudden sneer morphs quickly into a vague gape and her eyes dart between her hand that she tucks against her chest and Yuuka's that still lies on the tabletop.

Yuuka takes her hand back slowly after tracing it along the table, biting down softly on her middle finger this time. **Her neutral expression becomes sly, with her mouth curving up into a sneer of her own and eyebrows raising suspiciously as if to communicate some sort of intent.** Reimu can't decipher the game and looks quite concerned. _Yuuka can read her like a book..._

Meanwhile, Suika has been showing Takara around the grounds of the shrine. Suika takes her over to the storage shed _first thing_ and announces, "And this is where _I_ usually hang out! It's nice and cozy, but kind of cold in there." she rubs the back of her head with one hand and puts the other on her hip. They both approach the building, Suika shoves the door open, and they both head into the dark and cluttered room. Inside, they can barely see what's stacked up in mounds of apparent trash, but the one thing Takara can make out is a makeshift bed of stray cloth on top of a moderately tall pile that towers just slightly above their height. She takes one look around and is immediately not actually that impressed.

"Um...what's the point of all of this?" Takara hesitantly asks, scratching behind her ear in the process.

"Aaah!" Suika scoffs like a mentally retarded pterosaur "Reimu's just got a lot o' _crap!_ " she swats her hand back and forth.

Takara can't help but flinch at the odd sound she made, but carries on anyways. She starts to shift around restlessly while asking, "Hey, could we get out of here?"

Suika scoffs once more, "Aaah! We've only just beg-" before she can finish her argument, her horn gets caught in the trash, forcing her to a stop and then onto the ground. "Right." she admits "Yeah, let's do this later." She tries to get out, but her horns get lodged at least twice in the trash. They even scrape along the wood of the door and nearly closeline her by getting stuck. A few moments of awkward dislodging later, they're finally both out mostly unscathed.

Next, she shows her the tiny shrine out back to Kanako, the goddess on the mountain. As they approach, Suika explains, "This little trinket back here is a tribute to the goddess on Youkai Mountain. I think her name was Kanako? Can't remember. Anyways, humans come to pray here sometimes, for good fortune. It's actually pretty weak."

"Wait..." Takara stops her "...the frog god?"

Suika just shrugs, apparently completely unaware of the affairs of outside gods. They both approach the idol and take a closer look. It's not really gold, just solid bronze. Despite that, the actual craftsmanship is indicative of having been crafted by the goddess herself. That being said, the proportions are idealized to look more perfect than they actually are. A strange, frog-faced demi-human is also perched on top of the other god that is much less idealized and more youkai-like in appearance.

"There are two?" Takara rhetorically asks, surprised. She goes wide-eyed at the sight of how shiny and intricate the statue is. She notices upon further investigation that the pole that supports the statue is intertwined in bronze snakes that coil up the rod and have their heads pointing towards the depictions of the two gods. The snakes' heads support the tiny roof on the thing.

All the two can actually do is stare in wonder at how well-made it is. This continues for a few minutes until Suika beckons her away from it, "Hey! I've also gotta show you th' orchard!" She swings around her...shapes...as she walks away. Takara follows her into a grove in the back filled with tall, top-heavy cherry blossoms that had finished their blooming a long time ago. Now they're a pleasant shade of light green that brightens with the reflection of the sunlight, but the grove is dense enough to make it dark regardless.

Suika finds it a nice time now to strike a conversation. She turns around with both hands behind her head and leisurely asks, " _So what are you, exactly?_ "

Takara turns her attention as well, now totally focused on coming up with an answer instead of trying to figure out what the question means. She ends up confusing herself and is unable to respond properly, so she cops out, "Um...Yuuka's friend?"

Suika immediately retorts, "I mean what _are_ you? I'm an oni, she's a...thing. Reimu's a human, so what're you?" She turns to face her full-body.

Takara turns her head and refuses eye contact just then, hesitant to respond in any way. Suika approaches her slowly, waiting and anticipating a reaction. She guesses, "You look like an oni too, but you don't seem very strong at all. And I bet if I punched you, you'dn't recover too well. Right? So what's up with you?"

Takara still refuses to answer until Suika is right up next to her. Takara grabs her by the collar of her shit and pulls her in closer while whispering, " **Don't ask me that.** " The atmosphere changes dramatically, with Suika feeling genuinely startled. Then comes an overbearing feeling of pacifism, like all of her aggression was just replaced by something else.

The moment of her holding onto Suika and projecting...something...lasts much longer than is comfortable for either of them. The entire time, they're staring each other directly in the eyes. Takara is owl-eyed, them resonating with a light tone but a mixed intent. Through her gaze, Suika sees a husk of a person, one who isn't their own. Her pupils don't convey a personality, but a flat and black void. She can almost identify the feeling as being a challenge; "I dare you to understand." Yet, the hypnotism isn't aggressive. This repeat of thoughts would continue for what feels like hours, until they both hear something rustling in the grove.

"We need the others." Takara suddenly says.

Suika looks around, then acts dumbfounded and lost, "...What?"

Takara takes off aside from her, breaking into a sprint towards the shrine. She carelessly breaks leaves and twigs, but is on a completely isolated track right now. Suika gives chase after her and can just barely discern her surroundings at the moment, but still manages to almost catch up to her. Out of her peripheral vision, she can spy several people zipping past them in the near distance. They wear beige cloaks that can just barely manage to camouflage into the background. For nearly a full minute, they run while the apparitions give chase until they finally come in sight of the shrine! Just as they're about to make it, three of the figures step in the way with their identities totally hidden with their appearance. They don't look like they want to play by the rules, considering the daggers they brandish.

Takara skids to a stop, burning her feet in the process. She stands still, unsure of how to get out of this mess now. That is, until Suika comes charging through with a massive boulder! She sends the rock flying into the figures, who deftly dodge it and inadvertently give them enough time to run through! Suika stalls them an extra few seconds with a shockwave-inducing series of punches towards them.

Meanwhile, Yuuka and Reimu are still staring at each other in some sort of competition. Yuuka immediately cocks her head to the side when she notices Takara screaming her name not too far away. They both stand to attention and come rushing out! Yuuka is close to grabbing Takara and making a run for it, but she's stopped short by three daggers flying past everybody and nailing her in the torso! They go as deep as they can lodge themselves in, but Yuuka seems unfazed. Takara slows to a halt and gasps, staring on in abject horror for just a brief moment.

Before anyone else can notice or react, Yuuka grabs two of the daggers and rips them out, then the third! She throws them all on the ground and scoffs while her shirt is drenched in blood, "Tch! Think you can stop me with puny weapons like that!?" Her wounds immediately mend themselves. The bleeding stops, the wounds scab over, and then patch up like nothing happened all in a matter of a few seconds after pull the daggers out. " _ **COME AND GET ME!**_ " she screams at the cloaked figures!

Unfortunately for her temper, Reimu steps in before things get too ugly and erects a barrier just in time to let the figures slam against it. They've made their way past Suika with their superior agility, but Reimu is able to easily trap them in a barrier cube just then. Yuuka is disappointed by the anticlimactic win, but accepts it. She's about to grab Takara and just get the hell out of there, but notices her reaction.

Takara stares up at her, completely frozen and genuinely shocked at how she just _tanked_ those hits like they were nothing, then proceeded to bleed everwhere for all of five seconds and finally _taunt the enemy._ All she can do is stare with a face that can at least vaguely make Yuuka feel partially guilty.

Yuuka shakes off the feeling and crouches down to her level, speaking in a soft and collected manner, "I'll be fine, but we should really go now." She looks around suspiciously to see if anyone is listening, then starts talking in an uncharacteristically cutesy manner wile grinning from ear-to-ear, "Hey Ta-kun, wanna go up?"

Takara is still pretty unsettled by the display that just unfolded before her eyes, but she brushes it off in some time. She reaches out and nearly hops into Yuuka's arms despite her shirt still being wet with blood.

At the same time, Reimu and Suika regroup and start to analyze the men they just caught sneaking around and attacking people. They remain cloaked, against Reimu's interests, but she marks them as "clearly heretical". Suika asks what she'll be doing with them.

"I'll interrogate them _there._ You know, The Cave."

"...of Punishment?" Suika continues with a raised brow and tilted head.

"Yes. That one." Reimu assures her. She lifts the box barrier above the ground with the men still inside and brings it with her while she travels back into the grove, but slightly off and towards some rocky hills beyond it.

Suika nods and tries to absorb everything that's happened so far with barely any success. She slowly waltzes over to Yuuka, who is now just holding Takara. She outright asks her, "Hey, you should really figure out what... _she_...is." She seems almost hesitant to refer to Takara, who looks back and stares at Suika. Yuuka just nods and skips along her merry way down the shrine's entrance path and then the steps.

Suika finally has a chance to relax, so she goes back inside the shrine and slips underneath the kotatsu for some alone time. Unfortunately for her, fate has other plans. Just as she's getting comfortable, she feels a dark and oppressive atmosphere befall the room. A rift in space appears behind her, and a hand reaches out from beyond while its owner speaks, "Haven't you had a good day?"

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, remember to review; it helps with motivation. Thank you for reading!  
> I also have a tumblr with other things on it, so check that out: https://darkbeetlebot.tumblr.com/


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